October /November 2001

blame them on El Niño, global warming, orsome fluke of nature, the mild winters from 1998through 2000 gave midwestern rose growers a taste ofwhat it’s like to garden in the Carolinas. Garden-grown roses graced Thanksgiving tables, leaves neverfell from canes, and spring pruning became an exercisein calculus, instead of just exercise. Faced with feetinstead of inches of good wood on hybrid teas andfloribundas, I had to think about rose pruning in awhole new way. But I never abandoned winter protec-tion, the basic measures necessary to keep a rose alivethrough a typical USDA Zone 5 winter.

When I talked to new rosarians around Ohio dur-ing those years, I was astonished at what they weregrowing: Bourbons such as ‘Zéphirine Drouhin’ and‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’. Tender hybrid teas, suchas ‘Elegant Beauty’ and ‘Royal Highness’. Tree roses!“What are you using for winter protection?” I wouldask, only to be answered with quizzical looks. There’snot much discussion of winter protection at the HomeDepot garden center, or in rose books from England,where roses grow up into trees, and tree roses need nowinter protection. A gardener who experiences thissort of success right from the start has no reason toconvert to a system that promises the same result inexchange for a lot more work. I am no different, andhad I started my garden during these years I would

have seen no reason to winter-protect roses, dig callalilies, or put a heater in the fish pond.

With the winter of 2000–2001, however, Zone 7deserted northern Ohio, and our traditional condi-tions—temperatures to –20˚F with unreliable snowcover—returned with a vengeance. In spring 2001 thephone calls began. “My roses look as if they’re dead.What should I do?”

Some especially tough roses, such as the rugosas,

albas, and most gallicas and kordesiis, need no win-

ter protection at all in Zones 4 and 5. But, because weare gardeners, we do not limit ourselves to these sorts.For everything else, the question is: How much winterprotection does a particular plant need?

The rose classification system, based in roughlyequal measure on genetics, commercial considera-tions, and whimsy, is helpful only as a starting point.Noisette roses, for example, are supposed to be hardyonly to Zone 7. This is usually true, but at least one

With proper preparation most

any rose can make it through a

hard winter. Peter Schneider

A Rose Grower’sSURVIVALMANUAL

I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y E L AY N E S E A R S 23

24 the gardener

Noisette, ‘Reine Olga de Wurtemberg’, is perfectlyhardy for me in Zone 5b. While hybrid teas are said tobe winter hardy with nominal protection to Zone 5, afew (notably the exquisite creations of the Californian

Joe Winchel) are quite tender here, even with extraor-dinary protection. So a rose’s classification is neither aguarantee of its hardiness nor a reason to strike it offyour wish list. Color is often a helpful consideration:yellow, apricot, and buff-colored roses are almostalways more perishable than their red and pink coun-terparts. This tenderness is a genetic legacy of ‘Soleild’Or’, the weakling rose that ushered these colors intomodern roses.

Microclimate makes a big difference as well. If youhave a spot for roses near the south side of your house,or by a pond, or above a slope that will drain awayfrost, you can grow roses that would usually be con-sidered inappropriate in your area. For many yearsone Ohio rosarian grew tender roses with almost nowinter dieback because his garden was built on top ofa cellar. And whatever advantage your topographydoesn’t give you is still there for the taking: any rosecan be brought through any winter, if you want towork hard enough.

In Zones 5 and 6, most hybrid teas and floribun-

das can be successfully wintered with a simple pro-

tective mound. This is not done with the expectationthat a half-bushel of compost is going to stop theground from freezing. Quite the opposite. Whenapplied in a timely manner—when the ground isfrozen but before temperatures have fallen into single

MATERIALS

The perfect material for

mounding has enough weight

to stay put and not blow away

and enough texture to keep

from matting down into an

impenetrable layer. Sawdust is

a good bet if you

have a ready source. The best

leaves for mounding are

oak, which don’t form a mat or

create a gooey mess as maples

do. Linden and gingko also

turn into slimy clods and should

be avoided. Keep the oak

leaves in place with chicken

wire. Compost is great if you

have lots of compost and few

roses. Garden soil works fine,

but be sure to get it from

another part of the garden.

Scraping it up from beside the

rose you are trying to protect

will simply expose its roots to

the cold. Avoid using manure

as it tends to burn the canes.

WHEN AND HOW TO MOUND

It is more important to com-

pletely cover the bud union

than to achieve a particular

height. I dump a 5-gallon

bucket of sawdust over the top

of each rose. This covers the

bud union and some of the

root zone. Mound your roses

when ground is frozen but

before temperatures fall into

single digits (Fahrenheit). In

northern Ohio this is almost

always Thanksgiving week-

end.

WHEN TO UNEARTH

You should unearth your roses

just before the sprouts break,

which in my garden occurs

just before the forsythia

blooms. For the job I use a

child's 3-tine cultivator. I

bought one in a drugstore

about fifteen years ago and

have used it for this purpose

and this purpose only ever

since. Another approach is to

use a garden hose with a gen-

tle flow of water, which will

wash the winter protection

away from the bud union. This

is foolproof but can be time

consuming.

Do’s and Don’ts for Mounding

Cover the plant

with a thick

layer of soil or

compost.

Loosen half the

root system, and

dig a hole oppo-

site for the

crown.

The MinnesotaTip Method of Protection

digits—it will keep the groundfrom thawing. Winter doesmore damage to roses duringsunny interludes than duringsnowstorms, both by evaporatingwater from rose tissue and bystimulating cell action that will onlybe blasted by subsequent freezing tem-peratures. Roses are not ten-der in the same sensethat coleus, for exam-ple, are tender. Rather,roses are tenderbecause they are proneto grow with minimalprompting, and can withstand only so many checks tothis growth. A good winter protection moderatesfreeze-and-thaw cycles, and keeps the rose from tryingto grow too soon.

Rosarians who live in regions with early and reli-able snow cover know that they need not cover theirroses with anything else. I put a five-gallon bucket ofsawdust over each rose. (Someone who heard this, andknew that I grew more than a thousand roses, onceasked, “How do you find so many buckets?”) Sawdustis great because it is relatively light to carry, but quickto pack down around the rose without blowing away.In the spring, it can simply be raked into the bed. Thisis followed by an application of high-nitrogen granu-lar fertilizer such as 20-10-10, which is more thanenough to replace whatever nitrogen the decomposingsawdust consumes.

Oak leaves also make a good winter mulch in

Zone 6, if held in place with rabbit fencing or news-

paper collars. Maple and other softwood leaves makea gooey mess, and fresh manure will only burn or rotthe rose canes you are trying to protect. If you chooseto mound your roses with garden soil, it must bebrought in from a different part of the garden.Scraping it up from between the roses will only exposetender roots, doing more harm than good.

Fitting directly over the rose plant, Styrofoam rosecones are a tested strategy for winter protection. Theyare especially effective in preventing desiccationcaused by wind. But there are drawbacks to thisapproach. The rose must be cut back severely before

the cone will fit over it, mold can form insidethe cone, and summer storage of the conescan be a problem if you have more than afew.

Microfoam blankets are an effective win-ter covering for bedding roses. The rosesmust still be cut back but not as severely asfor use with rose cones. The biggest draw-back with these blankets is that they create acomfy winter environment for rodents.

The surest way to winter a tender rose in

a harsh climate is to loosen its roots on one

side, tip it over, and cover it with mounds of

soil, bales of straw, or a temporary cold

frame. This “Minnesota Tip” method ofwinter protection will bring just about any rosethrough a Zone 4 winter, and is necessary for very ten-der types, such as teas and Noisettes, in Zones 5 and 6.Unless you want to grow them in pots, it is the onlypractical way to get tree roses through the winter inthe North.

While other marginal woody plants, such as mag-nolias, become more winter hardy as they get olderand thicker, a ten-year-old rose is just as vulnerable asa two-year-old one. A ten-year-old climbing rose,however, will be much more spectacular than a two-year-old climber, and for this reason extraordinarymeasures, such as the Minnesota Tip, make mostsense for roses that require height to be effective in thegarden, or those that bloom only on old wood.

Once about every 50 years or so, someone comes upwith the idea that bud-grafted roses can be mademuch more hardy if planted with the bud union fourto six inches below the ground. The unstated goal of this plan is to make a budded plant into an own-root one. Over time this may happen, in which caseyou may wind up with a less vigorous version of your hybrid tea; if it does not establish on its ownroots, you will be left with a very sad-looking rose thatrarely puts out more than one cane. For the bestresults, cold-climate gardeners should plant buddedroses with the bud union about one inch below theground. Adding appropriate winter protection eachyear will guarantee a long life for your roses—even theones you shouldn’t be growing. e

25October /November 2001

Warding off winterkill ■ Never stop

watering. Lack of

water stresses

roses, and

stressed roses

don't winter well.

■ Avoid high-

nitrogren fertil-

izers late in the

season. Some

rosarians recom-

mend a no-

nitrogen, high-

potassium

fertilizer late in

the year. I agree

with their rea-

sons—it encour-

ages root

growth—but

don't need the

extra work it

involves at this

time of year.

■ Leave spent

flowers on the

bush at the end

of the season.

This will hasten

dormancy and

slow any poten-

tial soft new

growth.

Bud

union